Opponent had a list something like:
Vladimir, the Dark Prince of Umbrey
- Drago
Maximum unit of Kayazy Assassins + Underboss
Fenris
Man-o-War Drakhun (without dismount)
Again Cryx lost the starting roll. First picture is from the end of Cryx turn 1. Satyxis were able to charge themselves to both Dragoons and even a couple of ordinary Kayazys, dismounting Fenris and killing Drakhun entirely. They had to use Power Swell, though. Thanks to the scenario objective special rules (Inspiration for faction solos within 4" of objective) I didn't have to be afraid of Abomination from Fenris - though I remembered only when activating the last model from the unit that I actually have to leave one of them within CMD range of the friendly Faction solo in question. Old habits die hard.
Khador replies with Vlad2 using his feat, getting five models to buff. That was all the Uhlans and one unit of Eliminators. Two uhlans almost wreck Erebus all by themselves, and third one would have most likely done just that, but he missed the attack roll.
This was first game in the tournament where Ashen Veil seemed to be actually effective, when four Satyxis were still alive even after a crapton of assassins had attacked them.
On Cryx turn Asphyxious advanced, camping four focus, and used his feat. It seemed like quite good position, because neither Vlad or Drago would be able to charge Asphyxious, and Kayazy Assassins would need to walk into melee with Asphyxious. Only real threat was one unit of Eliminators.
Or so I thought.
Kayazy with Underboss would have easily got in a charge against Asphyxious because of Kill Stroke, so the only thing that could have saved my warcaster was a failed Command check.
But luckily I didn't have to suffer the humiliation of forgetting critical rules on enemy models.
Two goddamn P+S 16 + 3d6 attacks from Kayazy Eliminators killed ARM 21 Asphyxious with 18 hit boxes.
My mental image was that Asphyxious started chanting his dark incantations with a deep and sinister voice, and then a Kayazy appears from out of nowhere and punches dagger into his throat... "shut up".
Game 4:
Last game was against Trollbloods, and opponent had the following list:
Borka the Kegslayer
- Dire Troll Mauler
- Storm Troll
Maximum unit of Fennblades + Unit Attachment
Maximum unit of Krielstone Bearers + Stone Scribe Elder
Maximum unit of Warders
Fell Caller Hero
Opponent had converted just about every model somehow, and the trollblood army looked especially stunning thanks to it. Conversion guidelines in Warmachine don't encourage into big conversions, so I raise my hat (though I rarely use one) to anyone who fights uphill the conversion policies. But anyway. Into the actual game.
Scenario was Rally Point. I didn't win any of the starting rolls during the tournament, but in this last game I at least got to make a meaningful choice of deployment sides - I figured that the obstruction would divide opponent's army more than the forest.
First picture is from the end of Trollbloods turn 2, and atrocities were committed then.
First time in the tournament I was happy that Satyxis with Ashen Veil would have a major impact in the game, when they ran full 16" to engage the Fennblades. Fennblades would be struggling to contest the zone now. Or so I thought.
Fell Caller gave them +2 to attack rolls, but they still needed 8+ to hit.
Eight Fennblades got to make attacks. Six Satyxis died. And then Borka cast Iron Flesh on them.
I had been looking at the very possible chance of starting to dominate the enemy zone next, because the sheer amount of heavy armor on the left side of the board looked very intimidating without Bane Thralls. If I lost only a few, say, three Satyxis it'd be easy to clear the three that were contesting enemy zone.
Now just three Satyxis had to do it, and Fennblades had DEF 15.
I still decided to go for the scenario game, and I had to decide between trying to aim a Hex Blast on Fennblades to get rid of Iron Flesh, or to cast Carnage. I opted for Carnage, since it was impossible to miss Carnage. Asphyxious advanced to dominate enemy zone, cast Carnage and used feat. He was camping four focus.
Five remaining Satyxis manage to kill the three contesting Fennblades, which was a relief.
I was actually thinking about Borka's feat - I didn't move Erebus for an easy slam against Asphyxious. That's why it is where it is in the picture. Warwitch Siren charged in to Warders for some additional nuisance. Also if she would have hit and Shadow Bound the Warder, Erebus (And Asphyxious) would be safe from any kind of a charge, unless opponent killed his own Warder somehow. But alas, she missed.
Sadly this is the last picture I have taken, but again, last round began from here.
Borka used his feat and cast Iron Flesh on himself.
Warders charge around, but the important part was to get the not-shadow-bound (not that I'm implying you suck and deserve to be melt on a new years eve) Warder away from Mauler's charge lane.
As an added bonus first Warder hit and killed the Warwitch Siren, so it was pretty easy now to get a clear charge against Erebus.
After Krielstone Bearers had moved from the way, Mauler charged Erebus and triggered a chain attack, and used double-handed throw against Asphyxious. That one really caught me unprepared, especially when even collateral damage gains an additional die under Borka's feat. Erebus got wrecked thanks to the throw damage, but Asphyxious suffered no damage, though it was, what... POW 15 + 3d6?
Well, anyway. Next the notorious Fennblades activate, and this turn they need 10's to hit the Satyxis!
And 10's they roll. Every single Satyxis dies. Ashen Veil is such an useless spell. At least for me, it seems.
Four Fennblades were contesting the zone now where the main body of Satyxis are, and one had charged Satyxis Captain (who didn't have Ashen Veil and who survived... go figure) and one had charged Ripjaw.
Again I had all but lost the attrition game, so my only chance was to somehow get rid of six Tough models and destroy the enemy objective. It was reasonably possible, but it required many rolls in many different locations, so even one streak of bad luck would be Asphyxious' undoing.
But the plan was thus: Helldiver would destroy the objective. Ripjaw (and Vociferon) would kill one Fennblade, Satyxis Captain one (and sprint from the way of Asphyxious) and Asphyxious would make a long Mobility charge, and kill four Fennblades.
First Withershadow Combine activated and Maelovus cast Dark Fire on the objective, and Tremulus used Puppet Master on the Helldiver. Maelovus scored one damage point to the objective, and then Helldiver started to beat it up. Two P+S 13 + 3d6 attacks would need to chew through ARM 18 and 14 damage boxes.
And it did, and Helldiver didn't even have to use the Puppet Master.
Asphyxious had scored an amazing number of souls last turn - at least six, possibly seven. But still... after allocating three focus to Helldiver and casting Mobility and having had to use one for shake off he had only 7-8 Focus for use. Nice amount, yes, but he still had to kill four Tough def 12 targets.
When first Fennblade had passed Tough two or three times in a row, I was all like "so this is how it goes...", but then the troll finally failed Tough roll, and with Blood Boon Asphyxious cast Bone Shaker at one of the Fennblades, who went and killed a third one, who also failed Tough roll.
Remaining 3+ focus was enough to kill the last troll, and it was a scenario victory for Cryx.
Four games in a day is quite a lot to remember, so there are probably some mistakes in details here and there. But overall the games were nice and exciting in their own way, though a few times I felt a little bit too lucky. Especially during the second game. And in the Khador game I felt a little bit too dumb. But anyway. All of the games were against warcasters/warlock I get to play against only rarely. For instance, I thought that I had never played against Borka, but spreadsheet statistics showed otherwise.
The 40 minute clock wasn't as bad as I was initially afraid, but that was probably thanks to a very straightforward list I had. Ashen Veil on Satyxis. Run with Satyxis, engage stuff, follow up with everything and feat with Asphyxious. Asphyxious' feat is very tournament-friendly, because it takes less than a quarter of a second to resolve.
No comments:
Post a Comment